Anyhoo! My teeth aren’t that bad in reality, but they could do with a little sprucing up, I have to admit. So, I spent an interesting hour at The Welbeck Clinic yesterday, looking into getting my teeth whitened, and I’ve decided to go for it.

I hate my smile, and there’s a reason you never see my teeth in my Face of the Day posts (and I’m aware there haven’t been too many of those recently, long story, but they’ll be back, consider this a warning), that’s because my teeth are yellow, and I have a somewhat “gummy” grin, which I’m very self-conscious about and have trained myself over the years not to grin much.

So I approached my visit to Welbeck with some trepidation yesterday, I thought I’d be thrown out for having nasty teeth! Luckily, the clinic is warm and welcoming, and Dr Joe couldn’t have been nicer. He explained the difference between the at home system (basically four hours a day wearing custom-made trays unable to eat or drink anything that might stain for 14 days) and the laser-whitening (Zoom) system, which takes one visit to the dentist and a couple of days in trays at home. I opted for the Zoom laser, it just sounds easier, quicker, and well, it involves a laser, and anyone who read my blog post yesterday will know how I feel about those …

During my consultation Dr Joe was totally honest about how the process is entirely unpredictable, and results will vary individual to individual, which I appreciated. He also pointed out that I have translucent teeth tips and these won’t whiten at all during the process. To be honest, I hadn’t even noticed I had translucency issues. I’m just hoping my teeth don’t go completely invisible over the years!

I then had my impressions taken, from which they make my trays for the at-home portion of the whitening (which takes four days) a process which was surprisingly easy, and super-speedy, and didn’t taste as strange as I expected it too, which was nice. It took about seven minutes start to finish to complete the whole thing. I go to collect those on 23rd February, and then the full whitening will go ahead on 1st March … I can’t wait. New gnashers will be mine … for a year or two, it’s not a permanent process.

Whilst I was there, I also enquired about gum sculpture, but it turns out I’m not a suitable candidate as I’m not having veneers, so, whilst I can’t deal with my “gummy” grin, at least the teeth you can see will be white and shiny!

I’ll be back with before & after photos later, is there anything else you’d like to know about the process? Also, has anyone else had this done, what can I expect, do you think?

5 Comments

No knowledge. Sorry. If there's a process that coats the teeth with white then I'd take it but procedures that remove cells/enamel/whatever scare me. But I leave my teeth well alone and that seems to work well. Good luck with your endeavours.

Is it wrong that I just want to comment on the adorable cat photo? Dude's got attitude!

In anycase, it's really unfortunate you've a 'gummy' smile – have you tried to practice different smiles in the mirror? Perhaps there'll be one which hides those gums! I was told by some friends I've big front teeth once in high school and the memory (plus sting) has stayed with me since.

I've just had at-home whitening done (although mine involved wearing trays overnight) because I've just finished Invisalign, and although it made my teeth straight, they were still very yellow, and I'm vry self-conscious about them. Unfortunately, while it did remove the staining I had around the tops of the teeth, it didn't make much of a difference to the colour of the teeth themselves: in fairness, my dentist had told me he didn't thnk it would make a great deal of difference, but I wanted to try it anyway as I was desperate! Like you, I have some translucency, and the dentist tells me that the inside of my teeth are also dark (He explained this in great detail, but that's what it came down to), which bleaching doesn't change. I'm now thinking veneers are going to be the only way for me to have properly white teeth, but what it did make me realise is that the results are so variable: previously, I'd always assumed that if you had teeth professionally whitened, they'd be white, but it's different for everyone, and even dentists don't seem to know for definite what difference it'll make.

Anyway, sorry, I've rambled on – will follow your progress with interest as I literally just finished my whitening last week, so it's still on my mind!